ABSTRACT
The Vienna terrorists claimed to be acting on behalf of the Palestinian revolution, but only some of them were Arabs and it is not certain that there was a single Palestinian among them. Their leader was the notorious "Carlos", a Venezuelan trained in Moscow and supported by Cuban intelligence in Paris—a branch of the Soviet KGB. There are basic differences between the rural guerrilla and the urban terrorist: mobility and hiding are the essence of guerrilla warfare, and this is impossible in towns. The real inspiration underlying terrorism is a free-floating activism that can with equal ease turn right and left. Most political terrorists in modern times have been of middle-or upper-class origin, and many of them have had a higher education. Terrorism is a danger, but magnifying its importance is even more dangerous. Modern society may be vulnerable to attack, but it is also exceedingly resilient.
